If you are still looking for help building an e-commerce site let me know. I might be able to help you. My company specializes in starting up internet e-commerce companies and have developed a pretty effective strategy for marketing them. I`ve built over 30 successful e-commerce sites.

We have a lot of experience in building various types of websites (static, dynamic, ecommerce, etc) in whatever language is preferred. If you are interested in discussing further, drop me an email.

For economical solutions, I would consider going with OScommerce or ZenCart which are open source ecommerce solutions that many web hosting companies support. Its a pretty easy install and setup, using the default template. Just remember to discuss with your hosting company the cost of adding in SSL Certificates. An advantage of using one of the open source packages is that there is a solid community backing, many templates and other code available to allow for customization and flexibility for future development.

For an ecommerce website, you are looking at a "dyanmic" website. Basically, the information is driven from a database so it can be changed on the fly by changing values on the database rather than forced to edit the webpage, and upload the chagnes to the server. Hence the name "dynamic". Static webpages are basic web sites that rely on basic html and basically comprise images and text.

For something like oscommerce (zen cart is another), does require some programming. Many web hosting companies provide support for them and you can use "fantasico installer".

You might be able to get away with the default installation and use their web interface to configure and setup your store but usually you want to customize things to cater to your business. That`s where it can be a little tricky if you have never done it before.

I might be speaking a little technical here but feel free to drop me an email/message if you want to talk some more

As a marketing representative for Answerbase.com, I would recommend selecting an e-commerce provider that allows for product discussion and feedback. This can greatly increase the customer's satisfaction by helping them avoid items and products that are not exactly what they are looking for. If the provider you have selected does not offer this feature, Answerbase can easily be integrated into you existing site as easily as adding a widget directly on the product page. I would recommend checking out the other benefits of Answerbase such as increased site traffic due to search engine optimization to see if this might be something that will integrate well with you existing site.

I`m in the process of building my business and was wondering if anyone recommends a website developer. Does anyone know of a more economical way to create a website that has e-commerce capability? Thanks!

Thanks asykes! and Damien, yes it is a retail business. Comments and perspective very much appreciated. Here is a little more insight into my business. I have been selling on Amazon since the begining of the year. When I first started I actually did pretty good, I think. I was making a few hundred dollars every week. Then as time went by I kind of let it get away from me and did give it the time and attention that it required so my sales kind of dwindled. Now I want to get back on track, but I want to go ahead and create my own site as I have more control over the cost of running it.

I see where you are coming from asykes when you mention stats. I myself have been very conservative on my spendings. I am a little shy on taking a big risk and spending a lot of money, but then again it takes money to make money.

I`m not sure how my a statice site would work as far as when someon buys from me. How would they order? How do I get paid?

I would need some advice as to what type of website (you mentioned static, dynamic...I`m not sure what the benefits or cons are). I would also prefer it in English for the time being.

I have actually taken a look at the oscommerce software but I`m a little lost in programming aspect of it. I would definately not mind using it. I would be very apreciated if we have a little pow wow on this further. Thanks for your consideration.

I would look at an open source solution called osCommerce or something similar. You can host it through your webhost and it offers a full catalog and checkout. I`ve setup a couple of online stores using this package and it has worked great. Using the default package will get you started and then you can hire a php developer to tweak it as needed to fit your business. Let me know if you are interrested and I wouldn`t mind helping you out.

The most quality and economical solution I've found for an e-commerce site is to find a contractor from www.oesk.com. I've had custom webstores built from $100-$150. You'll be amazed at the talent you can find overseas and how cheap it is.

Most designers from the philippines or india will charge $2-$5 an hour, or charge $50-$200 for a custom website.

Magento is a free CMS, like Wordpress, but it takes forever to load the website because of excessive scripting. Wordpress and Joomla have great ecommerce abilities.

You may want to look up Themeforest. Web Designers and Developers are pretty expensive. Actually my business website was built using a template from that website. Here's an example of an eCommerce template: Click here, all you need to do is to customize it. You can browse around the website depending on your needs (e.g restaurant template, law firm etc.).

If there is one thing i know do not go with the yahoo stores. The reason being that they do not offer a bundle of features and you will end up spending $700 a month.What i recommend is that you check out www.volusion.com. It is $50 a month i believe. I do not personally use it, but i have heard of it on certain podcasts, and professionals say it`s great. It includes all the features that you need to build a website and it includes a great shopping cart with all the statistics that you will need. One of the most important things is that it generates a google map and has search engine optimization features. They did a comparaison of this site with yahoo, and if you want the features offered by volusion in yahoo, it would cost you hundreds of dollars. I believe that it might help you greatly.Good luck,

The shopping cart is one of the most important parts to having a smooth e-commerce transition. Elements that are critical to a shopping cart should be, website wizards, Merchant tools, Shopping features, payment options, shipping and taxes configurations, statistics, and security. A truly great shopping cart is considered an E-commerce solution.

If you want to create your e-commerce website then you should considered which type of products you want to sell, check you payment solution and the most important thing is that choose reliable and trustworthy domain and add you Paypal account in your website.

For creating E-commerce site then you have to understand what the visitors want. E-commerce site must have the shopping cart facility. Moreover you have to give them assured that users is buying from your site is convenient and safe things. You can do this creating the site with high quality.

I am wondering what the $700.00/month for going with Yahoo is for. I do use Yahoo for my web hosting and e-commerce. I went into it blindly. I have monthly bills that I pay, but nothing at $700.00. This may be because I am not really making sales.

I have friends that have told me about other website hosting and e-commerce. I am a little overwhelmed to change at this point. I have a website designer that did everything through dreamweaver. But he needs to tag different things and every time I have hime go in and change something he is charging $60.00/hr

I have joined to see what I can learn and get some direction. I need a new website designer because I just can not afford the one I have. But his price may be reasonable. I don`t know.

In the meantime I am working at bringing sales in but it is very difficult when you are not known. Any suggestions are appreciated.